“There’s no such thing as bad weather, just soft people.” ~ Bill Bowerman

Am I soft? I must be. The weather has been a bane of my existence. As I get older and my body starts to do the things that older bodies start to do — the ol’ snap, crackle, and pop syndrome! — the weather greatly affects me. My joints scream with the damp and cold, my sinuses attack with the rapid changes in fronts. I, generally, become a mess with the kind of weather we have been having lately.

This quote really hit me square between the eyes, though. I gripe about the weather; but, the different kinds of weather are what the earth needs. If we did not have cold, many plants would not survive as they have to have a period of time where they are dormant. If we did not have rain, well, we would not have anything growing. As far as that goes, it would not really matter if anything grew since we would not be alive. No rain would equal no water. No water equals no life.

Hot or cold, wet or dry, sunny or dark, all the cycles of the weather serve a purpose to our planet and, therefore, to us.

If we apply this to our own faith lives, we might find another eye opener. We often become upset when our spiritual lives cycle. For a while, we might have the richest prayer life we have ever had. It satisfies us and fulfills us. We have never felt closer to God. Then, all of a sudden, we hit a “drought”. We find prayer almost impossible. We feel far from God. We wonder what happened.

The great saints have all commented upon their own dark night of the soul. Yet, they persisted in their attempt to pray. They made it through their spiritual drought and found an even richer life with God afterward.

Changes in the weather remind me of the many times our spiritual weather changes. We need to appreciate all those changes and to look for something better as we go through them.